–family fears the worst
Ten days after fishing boat captain Chandradat Harrynauth, 49, of Number 73 Village, Corentyne was kidnapped by pirates, he has still not been found and relatives fear the worst.
Harrynauth, known as ‘Kumar’ or ‘Square,’ and his four-member crew were attacked by the pirates around 5 pm last Wednesday [Octo-ber 24].
Reports are that the crew members were forced into a boat that was robbed earlier while the pirates entered the boat with the captain and escaped with him. They had already dealt Harrynauth a chop to the back of his head.
Crying uncontrollably throughout an interview on Wednesday, the man’s wife, Asha Premnauth told Stabroek News that she believes that her husband was killed by the pirates or he would have contacted her already.
The woman, a fish vendor at the Skeldon market, was deeply distressed about how she would be able to care for her nine children.
Three of the children, she said, are attending high school and she might have to “take them out. Me can only afford to feed them but not school them.”
She lamented that “it hard, it very hard… Eight day now and me can’t find me husband. Me gat to depend on somebody now to give me pickney dem someting.” She was “studying how me gon mek out. Me have to be mudda and fadda fuh dem.”
She told this newspaper that her big family was living in a “lil house.” Even though she and her husband were struggling to make ends meet they were trying hard to make their children comfortable.
They were in the process of building a bigger house which is “quarter way.” She was also distressed that she may never be able to complete it on her own with her meagre earnings.
Premnauth recalled that her husband left home around 6 am two Sundays ago and she thought everything was fine with him. The boat belonged to his sister-in-law.
It was not until Friday when she visited the Number 66 fisheries to purchase fish to vend that she learnt pirates had kidnapped her husband. She said it was the most devastating news she got. She then contacted her relatives.
Other fishermen, who had come in from sea the day before and heard about the attack, related that they saw a fishing boat abandoned along the shore.
A search party immediately went out and retrieved the boat but their hunt for the men, which continued for a few days, remained fruitless.
The woman was grateful for the assistance and support from the chairman of the Number 66 fisheries, Pravinchandra Deodat. He provided fuel for the search team and kept calling and consoling the family.
Meanwhile, on October 1, Rajkumar Sookdeo, 40, known as ‘Kumar’ or ‘Bruk-up,’ a fisherman of Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, was chopped and thrown overboard by bandits.
Four members of the crew made it safely to shore but Sookdeo and Murtland Fordyce disappeared. The badly decomposed body of Sookdeo was found days later on the shore in Suriname and had to be buried on the foreshore.
Two other fishermen from Rosignol, Mahendra ‘Rub’ Ompertab, 27, and his brother-in-law Kanhai Madramootoo, 41, also disappeared at sea on August 21. Although there has been no trace of them, relatives have performed their last rites.
In August last year, five fishermen from Corentyne went missing and have never been found.
The men, brothers Khemraj and Narine Dhanpat, known as ‘Rajan’ and ‘Shrimp,’ respectively, both of Number 64 Village; Ramnarine Oditnarine, called ‘Rodney,’ of Number 64 Village; Clifford Singh, called ‘Eggan’ of Number 62 Village; and Sumesh Martin, called ‘Canje,’ of Number 64 Village went missing on August 6.
Foul play was suspected after the boat was discovered empty in Suriname on August 24, 17 days after the quintet set sail.
There has also been a spate of piracy in the Corentyne and Suriname waters, with fishermen being badly beaten and terrorised. They have also been robbed of their catch, fuel, engines, cell phones and other items, which amount to millions of dollars. (Shabna Ullah)
